About Brechtel
Vision • Mission • Why Clients Choose Us
Our Vision
Our Mission
To accelerate scientific understanding of the role of aerosols in climate change across the Earth sciences
History
1983 Founded
Fred Sr. starts with one vacuum brazing furnace in a garage in Fremont, CA.
1984 Growth
Became too big for the garage and moved to a small warehouse.
1986 Incorporated
Officially incorporated and moved into one of our current 8,000 sq ft buildings to fabricate vacuum ion pumps for global distribution.
2001 ACE-Asia
Fred Jr. performs sizing and hygroscopicity measurements and manages Kosan ground sampling site in South Korea for 2-month NSF-sponsored multinational field study.
2002 Father & Son Team
Fred Jr. joins the firm to develop new aerosol measurement technologies.
2002 First Product
Very first isokinetic inlet system ships to DOE for the G-1 research aircraft.
2002 NAOS
Participated in the New England Air Quality study on-board the G-1 research aircraft.
2003 Make it Blow
Completion of 220 mph (100 m/s or 350 km/hr) wind tunnel at Brechtel for aircraft inlet testing.
2003 First SBIR
Office of Naval Research awards us our first SBIR to develop the DASH-SP.
2004 PILS & SEMS Begins…
First customized PILS & SEMS systems for routine aircraft measurements.
2004 ICARTT
Brechtel participates in Twin Otter flights during field study of aerosol/cloud properties.
2005 Focus
Ion pump business is sold and Brechtel turns all of its attention to development, manufacturing, and sales of aerosol measurement instrumentation.
2006 NOAA SBIR
Awarded to develop ACCESS line of UAV-deployable products.
2006 First DASH
Release of first aircraft-deployable DASH to Caltech for the CIRPAS Twin Otter.
2006 GoMACS in Texas
Participated in Texas field study to study aerosol/cloud interactions.
2007 MASE
Provided technical support to customers operating the DASH, PILS and other instruments on-board the CIRPAS Twin Otter.
2009 Particle Counter
First shipment of our 1700-series mixing-based counters.
2009 Arctic UAV Sampling
Delivery of first ACCESS line products for UAV-deployment by NOAA over Svalbard.
2009 NSF SBIR
Awarded to develop fast mobility sizing and counting technologies.
2010 HTDMA Release
First shipment of our Humidified Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer.
2010 Sampling Clouds
Release of the Model 1204 CVI inlet and first installation on the DOE G-1 research aircraft.
2010 CARES
Provided support for PILS aircraft and ground deployments as well as for ISO and CVI inlets on G-1 aircraft during the CARES study.
2011 New PILS
Release of new version of the PILS 80% smaller and 70% less expensive than the original version.
2012 Passing of the Baton
Fred Jr. becomes CEO and owner of Brechtel.
2013 Sampling Clouds Part II
Release of our 1205 Ground CVI to extend aircraft cloud sampling to the ground.
2013 DOE SBIR
Awarded to further development of ACCESS line of UAV-deployable technologies.
2014 Brown & Black Carbon
First shipment of the TAP to NASA and UK Met Office.
2015 Make it Better
Major redesign of 2100 SEMS.
2016 DOE SBIR
Miniaturize the SEMS for UAV and other portable applications.
2016 UAV Instruments
First shipment of redesigned portable ACCESS line of products.
2016 DOE SBIR
Awarded to further commercialization efforts for ACCESS line.
2017 Let’s make it HOT
Release of our model 3105 Thermodenuder to cook sampled particles to 300 deg C; and it fully integrates with the HTDMA.
2017 DOE SBIR
Awarded to miniaturize CCN technology.
2018 Carry-on SEMS
Release of a compact SEMS in a carry-on-sized weather proof case for applications requiring mobility.
2018 India
Brechtel scientists participate in the CAIPEEX study with full ACCESS instruments and CVI inlet on King Air research aircraft.
2019 Patents
Awarded fifth patent on particle ionization and detection.
2019 Mini-OPC
Release of our 9405 miniaturized optical particle counter for portable/UAV applications.
2019 DOE SBIR
Awarded to explore a new method to measure aerosol light absorption.
2020 Small SEMS
Release of the miniaturized SEMS for UAV and other portable applications.
2021 Pandemic Comeback
After lengthy shutdown, sales surge and team grows to 18 terrific people! It’s great to be back.
2021 DOE SBIR
To create a miniaturized version of the HTDMA for portable aerosol hygroscopic growth measurements.